New telephone features have recently been introduced to provide telephone subscribers with enhanced personal communication services. These features are designed to make it easier for a calling party to reach the subscriber. For example, in one instance, a single personal telephone number is provided to a customer of the service. This personal telephone number is associated with a customer profile which is designed to assist in the routing of an incoming call, regardless of their physical location. In a typical scenario, a caller can attempt to reach the subscriber by dialing the personal telephone number that has been assigned to that subscriber. A call connection will be attempted according to the subscriber's profile. The subscriber's profile is used to route the call according to where the subscriber is expected to be at that time and day, that is, at the subscriber's home, office, automobile if the subscriber has a cellular telephone or simply to a voice messaging system.
The problem with these new services, is that in making the subscriber more reachable, the implementation of call management services have become much more difficult. Also, since practically anyone can reach the subscriber regardless of his location, the subscriber has to rely on the service to screen incoming calls. Any changes to the subscriber weekly schedule will have to be entered in the system, either by the subscriber or by a service provider's operator. Also, regular calls routed directly to the subscribers home, office or cellular telephone will not be screened by the service.
Accordingly, there is a need for personal communication services wherein call screening is facilitated by associating the number dialed by a calling party with a function or role of the dialed number. That is, a private role for calls directed to a home or cottage number, a business role for calls directed to the office, a social role for calls directed to the baseball or country club, etc. This function or role is then sent to the subscriber when an incoming call is received. In addition, the Calling Party Identification (CLID) and/or name will also be sent to the subscriber. In this way, the subscriber can decide to answer the incoming call knowing the role or context associated with the dialed number.
Similarly, another form of telephony that has seen tremendous growth is in the area of wireless telephony. Unfortunately, portable telephone users, regardless of whether they are using cellular or low power wireless type telephones, have very few services available to them for screening incoming calls. For example, although an incoming call will in most instances reach the portable phone user, the user's call management options will normally be limited to a) answering the call or b) have the call sent to voice mail.
Accordingly, there is a need for personal communication services which other than providing enhanced reachability for the subscriber, will give a cellular or portable telephone user additional services in handling and screening incoming calls.